A difference in attitudes
by glynrh19
Summary: Sequel to Team Tech Support (Flash Xover) but you don't have to read it. Cadmus has shown the extent of their influence by creating an alien incursion to distract the Justice League and starting a gang war in Gotham. Now they're striking from the shadows and disappearing just as rapidly. It's nowup to Supergirl, Batgirl and their allies to stop their next plan reaching fruition...
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: As I mentioned before this is a sequel to my Flash Crossover,** _ **Team Tech Support**_ **, you don't have to read that to enjoy this, but I thought it best to give a quick summary of events. Cadmus struck at the DEO and captured Supergirl, Martian Manhunter, Alex Danvers and Mon-El. Winn Schott escaped along with Cisco Ramone and Felicity Smoak of Earth One who were visiting. Cadmus used the psychic abilities of Black Mask to stage a Gordonian incursion into the Solar System which the Justice League was forced to combat, and started a massive gang war in Gotham city meaning that Felicity Smoak of Earth 38 (this world's Oracle) was unable to send any of her team to National City to help Winn rescue the DEO operatives. Luckily, with the help of Guardian and Lena Luthor, Felicity, Cisco and Winn were able to rescue Cadmus' prisoners. On his return to Earth, Batman dispatched Batgirl to National City to help Supergirl to track down and destroy Cadmus. This story takes place two months later, shortly after Batgirl's arrival in the city.**

Cadmus had been silent for far too long. J'onn knew that they weren't beaten, far from it in fact, the fact that they had been able to capture some of the DEO's finest operatives was a testament to that fact. After Winn's rescue of himself and the others, J'onn had wanted to launch an immediate strike on the base in which they'd been held. Sadly however, Cadmus' attack on the DEO had left almost all of his field agents injured. So, Cadmus and the DEO licked their respective wounds and rebuilt their strength. Unsurprisingly, the raid on the facility two days ago had revealed that the organisation had moved out completely, they'd even left a note for Supergirl to find.

 _Better luck next time._

Needless to say, J'onn was delighted when he received word from Batgirl that she was coming to help. He knew her personally and trusted her completely, she'd worked with the DEO on occasion to help bring in some of her more… difficult rogues. Whilst J'onn was happy, Kara and Winn were not.

Both, he realised, had reasonable reasons not to be. Winn was still furious that none of the Bats came to their aid, even though the mission would take two days at most. However, Gotham gang wars were long and infinitely bloody unless you stopped the quickly, Oracle had no choice but to keep her team in Gotham. There were still border skirmishes going on now, it was a wonder that they were even getting Batgirl's support. He _was_ angry at Felicity mind, she could have sent at least someone from their network to help, it just wasn't any individual members fault, he was confident that Winn would see that eventually.

Kara had taken issue to the Gothamite on a more ideological standpoint. Whilst J'onn did agree that Batman's methods could be… questionable, he himself had once brought this up to Bruce, who had been his friend for some five years at this stage. He had replied that criminals had to be _afraid_ of him for what he does to work, and J'onn supposed this was right. He continued, saying that Superman's enemies were afraid of him because of his otherworldly powers, the fear of an unstoppable retribution, which allowed him to work in the light and give a message of hope but Batman's fear is based off his reputation as a figure of myth. Kara didn't understand that yet. I hope however, that she will, J'onn thought.

All this went through his mind in a rather awkward standoff between Batgirl, Supergirl, Guardian and Martian Manhunter. An alien had attacked National whilst Kara was off in Metropolis asking her cousin how he could be friends with Batman (J'onn would have to apologise that he'd told her that). Martian Manhunter and Batgirl were first on the scene and fell into a comfortable rhythm of attacks, the thing was eight foot tall and bristling with spines, but slow, it attacked one, they dodged and the other put a good hit in. Guardian was next, saving J'onn from a nasty swipe with his grapnel, finally Kara arrived and took down the tired adversary with a well-aimed punch to the face at great speed.

"Batgirl, thanks for the help." J'onn knew he'd have to be first to extend the hand of friendship, Kara sure as hell wouldn't…

"You're welcome J'onn. Guardian, Supergirl, it's good to finally meet you, I've heard good things about you."

"Likewise." James replied. Kara nodded but her lips thinned. Batgirl's irritation radiated off her even through the cowl.

"Supergirl, quite frankly I don't care that you have some kind of problem with me. I'm here, deal with it and be professional." Her voice softened. "I don't want us to be enemies, we're on the same side." With that she fired her grapnel and was out of sight in seconds.

Supergirl felt gut punched. She hated looking like an idiot and right now she felt like one, she may have a problem with the Gothamite, but it shouldn't affect their work. She knew that.

* * *

Two and a half hours later James walked into the office she had been given by Cat.

"Kara, Snapper wants you for an interview."

"Thanks James, can we walk and talk?"

"Sure."

"Why does Clark get on with Batman?" She asked, he stopped.

"Kara, you need to work this out for yourself." Damn, thought Kara, that was _deliberately_ obtuse. She was about to snap at him when Snapper rounded the corner.

"Danvers, what took you… know, what, I don't really care. Barbara Gordon is in town to do some work for the Wayne Foundation, I want you to cover that, but with the appearance of Batgirl National, and her father's position as Commissioner of the GCPD I want you to get their thoughts on the Bats. I want this _objective_ Danvers, we both know how you can be on this sort of thing. Look at what happened to your cousin's reputation when he did a U-turn on the Batman."

She didn't like his tone about Clark, but ignored it.

"Do you have any way of getting into contact with her?" She asked curtly.

"You've got an interview in two hours."

You've _got_ to be kidding me, she thought, two hours to plan an interview…

* * *

Barbara Gordon had arrived at the café early and ordered a Latte. Now, she was sat looking over her glass and assessing the threat of the people surrounding her.

Two off duty cops, a bodyguard and a C-list celebrity he was hired by. The biggest danger here was the clumsy waiter.

She watched Kara walked in and noticed that she did the exact same scan, plus x-ray vision if the push down of the glasses was anything to go by. Barb knew it was low to get Batgirl into Supergirl's good books through their secret identities, but she genuinely liked the blonde and didn't want any issues.

"Kara! Over here." The redhead shouted, Kara smiled.

"Sorry I'm late miss Gordon." She said, clearly about to ramble, but Barbara stops her.

"It's fine, and please, call me Barbara."

"Sorry, thank you Barbara." She cleared her throat. "So, what is the Wayne Foundation doing in National City?"

"Well, we're looking for jobs for those effected by violent crime in Gotham, especially those with PTSD who need to leave the city as soon as possible. We also wanted to pass on outreach tips to the GCPD, the NCPD is famous for its community work."

"That sounds like a really worthwhile project, how long has the Wayne Foundation been collaborating with the GCPD?"

"A while now, it's important to have good relations with the police in our line of work, and our goals are similar."

"What would those goals be?"

"To make Gotham a better place, and to honour the memories of everybody killed in Gotham's bloody history by ensuring that people like the Joker seek help rather than going on killing sprees."

"Do you really think allying yourselves with a ruthless vigilante is the way to go about this?"

That was the kicker, Barbara realised. She had to be careful.

"Firstly, I'm not in a position to give the official position of either the GCPD or the Wayne Foundation on the Batman, but personally I think it's better for him to work with the police force so that we can utilise his skills, but keep him in check at the same time. This is about Batgirl isn't it?" Kara nodded.

"That's an understandable point of view, but the so called "Bat-Family's" methods are questionable at best, taking that into account would you recommend the citizens of National City to welcome her with open arms?"

"We don't know that this a relocation yet, she's been seen, what twice? If it is, then I can honestly say yes, I would. I've _met_ Batgirl, she's not as intimidating as Batman or Red Hood, both of whom I've also met, she's far more open. In fact, if Supergirl was to get in contact with her I'm sure they'd agree that they're on the same side, that would help with public trust."

* * *

The interview lasted for another fifteen minutes by Kara's guess, mostly about the Wayne Foundation project. Barbara's words had struck her, this was someone who had met her and both she and J'onn were saying that they just needed to clear the air to become close allies. She wasn't sure though, hence the phone call with her girlfriend.

"Look Kara, I'll support whatever you choose, but I think you should meet her. I'll come with you to referee if you want me to." Lena told her candidly

"Thanks Lee, that'd be much appreciated."

"Anytime darling."

* * *

"Nice batsignal." Batgirl said, stepping out from behind a pipe. Kara jumped.

"How did you sneak up on me?! I have super hearing and like, six kinds of vision!"

"It's a Bat thing." She replied with a smile. "What do the two of you want to talk to me about?" She asked, ensuring that they knew that she could see Lena hiding in the shadows. She stepped forward.

"You and Supergirl have some differences to sort out, here and now, so we can move forward." Lena spoke confidently, not flinching when the vigilante turned her gave on her directly.

"You wanna start Supergirl?" Batgirl asked with a slight smile.

"Why do you make people afraid of you? Don't you want to stop people committing crimes in the first place? You need to show there's always a better way!" Kara tried to keep her voice civil, but it wasn't working.

"Of course, we don't want people to commit crimes! What do you take us for? Thrill seekers? The second Robin _died_ for this cause, we're not in it for fun. Second, you scare people too! Every time criminals sees that crest they're terrified, because you can shoot lasers out of your eyes, or disembowel them with a single finger. That's why you can tell people there's another way and be taken seriously, carrot and stick. We scare people by reputation, the mythos of the Bat is all that keeps us from being hunted down, or people not caring about that light in the sky." Her anger was visible now, lips tightened, muscles taut. Kara felt terrible. She'd misjudged both Batgirl and the rest of the Bats, what J'onn said finally made sense to her. She _scared_ people, and because they also loved her it was easy to forget that.

"I'm sorry. That wasn't fair of me, I understand now. One more question though, why the cowl?"

Barbara smiled, forcing down what was left of her anger.

"I'm a woman, and with some of the people we have to deal with in Gotham that means they take me less seriously. The more closely linked I am to Batman, the more seriously they have to take me. Plus, it looks _so_ much cooler than the awful domino masks." Lena chuckled at that, as did Kara.

Barbara wasn't sure about this, every moment of her training advised her against it, but she trusted Kara and Lena and needed them to trust her. She took a moment, what would Bruce do? Not this.

"Kara," Kara stiffened at her use of her secret identity, "we have to be able to trust one another." She took a deep breath, then pulled off her left gauntlet, placed her fourth finger just under the right hand "ear" of her cowl and pressed down. She pulled her gauntlet back on as an electrical hum came from the locks disengaging, releasing the armoured helmet from the breastplate of her Batsuit. After she heard the click, she pulled it off her head.

"Barbara Gordon?!" Kara said, shocked. Lena smirked.

"Shout it out for everyone to hear then Kar." Lena laughed. Barbara smirked.

"I wouldn't have told you here if anyone could see or hear us Kara, no need to start rambling."

"I don't ramble." The blonde pouted. Lena laughed again, in hysterics this time. Kara glared.

"You _so_ do."

 **A/N: I'm so sorry it's taken so long to upload this, but I lost the completed first draft of this chapter (I think that version was better as well! Bloody Word…)**

 **Thanks for sticking with me those of you who followed me from** _ **Team Tech Support**_ **and thanks for picking this up those of you who didn't. This is obviously canon divergent, probably from before Medusa, I haven't really figured that quite out. If any of you are wondering about Batgirl's Batsuit (try saying that six times quickly), think New 52 design, but helmet rather than cowl (see the one from** _ **Dawn of Justice**_ **on Alfred's bench.) Batgirl is going to be a major character, but I'm going to try to make sure that the focus stays on Kara, the show is Supergirl after all…**

 **Feel free to leave constructive criticism or just thoughts and feelings in a review.**

 **Thanks.**


	2. Chapter II: Pitched Battle

**A/N: Sadly I don't own Supergirl ect. Just a quick warning, there is violence and death towards the end of the chapter.**

J'onn let out a grunt as the wind was knocked out of him. Recovering as rapidly as he could, he phased through the next punch and countered with his own. His assailant dodged and threw a projectile into his leg, it stung like hell. He blocked a storm of fists and legs and responded with a roundhouse which connected with her sternum, she stumbled but stayed up.

Batgirl glared at him and drew back a Batarang when the DEO alarms blared.

"I'll beat you later J'onn." Batgirl quipped with a smile as she replaced the Batarang.

"You wish. Agent Schott, what the hell is going on?!" He growled. Winn cringed.

"I'm not sure, there's been a massive power surge coming from Lord Tech." J'onn winced. If Max Lord was involved there were going to be issues.

"Batgirl, Supergirl, Alex, get down to Lord Tech see what's going on. Do not engage unless you're attacked. Do I make myself clear?" It's a risk sending Kara to deal Maxwell Lord, the two have a history of heated animosity at best. After the events of Myriad, J'onn had hoped that they would be able to bring the tech giant into the fold. He was wrong.

* * *

Barbara grappled up to the roof of the Lord Tech building and used her gauntlet to hack the skylight, there was a click as the alarm turned off and the state of the art electronic lock unbolted. She grinned, looked like the new program she'd written worked a treat, if she could get in to Lord's building, she could get into most buildings. Dropping silently Batgirl scanned her surroundings, she was in a dark hallway. What was it with shady organisations and dark hallways? There was always _at least_ one in a secret hideout in her not insignificant experience. She'd have to ask Batman about it, or maybe not, he didn't really have the greatest sense of humour…

The first three rooms she swept were empty of anything significant or incriminating. The fourth was not. A large machine, possibly alien in origin or at least not recognisable to Barbara, there was a computer terminal at the base of what looked like a large spire, there were glowing blue strips of light at regular intervals around the circular edge. Her training kicking in before she just ended up staring, Batgirl connected her gauntlet too the computer. This was what had caused the power surge, it was drawing around half a million watts from the grid. Which, come to think of it, should have shut down half of National City in a major power cut. There was something bigger at work here, she downloaded all of the data onto her gauntlet computer and left the room.

Only to find six men with guns pointed at her head.

"Hi, I was looking for the office, could you point me in the right direction?" Hey, it was National, everyone was _so_ much nicer than in Gotham. They started shooting.

It was worth a try.

She dodged back into the room and threw a Batarang which knocked the pistol out of ones hand, then, she leapt into the fray. Get in close, the guns become a hindrance, won't shoot their own men just to get her. Not like Gotham. She ducked below a strike to her head and pivoted on one leg, kicking him in the sternum. She cartwheeled away from a lead pipe that was swinging towards her head (where the hell had he got that? The hallway looked clean!). She bought her boots crunching into the head of another assailant. Elbow to the face. Ow.

"Touché, I did not expect to get tagged by you guys." She quipped, throwing up her arm to block a hook punch to the head. He screamed as he sliced his fist on the suits arm blades. This was taking too long, she needed to finish this quickly, not a training exercise any more, back up would be on its way.

She swept her cape in front of her and the three men left standing stumbled backwards, when they recovered she had armed the shock-dusters from the back pocket of her Utility Belt. This time when she hit the big guy in the stomach he went down. Went flying back through the air would be a little more accurate. His two colleagues looked at each other and flew at her. She spun out of their way and landed a kick to the base of the skull on the one closest too her. He too dropped. One on one now, she had a huge advantage.

Crash!

What the hell was that?! Kara, it was Kara on top of her, both groaning in tandem. Apparently, something had knocked her through the wall right on top of Barbara. X-ray vision, or just really good luck? She wondered. Kara took off and flew at Mach 1 (if the boom was anything to go by) and judging by the pleasant-sounding thud, she hit her target. Barbara's opponent was still shaken and apparently hadn't taken the chance to kick her whilst she was down. Either people in National _really_ were much nice than Gotham, or he genuinely didn't know they had the firepower to do that. Probably the latter.

Batgirl did not have the same qualms.

She dispatched him with a swift punch to the face. Lights out.

She picked up the shock-duster from where it had fallen, blue light still flickering intimidatingly (she realised she was lucky she hadn't tased herself in the fall), put it on and climbed through the Supergirl shaped hole in the wall. It wasn't, she noted, plyboard either, this was heavy duty reinforced steel. There must have been a hell of a lot of force behind that hit. Hopefully it was a single charge energy weapon. Somehow though, she doubted she'd ever get that lucky.

She wasn't.

The thing that was throwing her friend around like a ragdoll was about ten feet tall, lumbering on four legs, when not attacking, resting on its front knuckles she noticed, now standing to its full fifteen foot. Explosive Batarangs it was then. Turning a dial on her Gauntlet she selected the highest charge, demo charges in fact, and drew one which hit the creature in the elbow. It exploded with considerable force and the beast stumbled backwards, there was a small wound in its arm. Behind the lenses of her cowl her eyes widened. That made this thing stronger than Bane, or the Batmobile (when testing these new weapons, she'd accidently made a new door in the Batmobile...). Thankfully however, Kara took full advantage. Using her density and flight to make her into a Kryptonian cannonball she flew at the beast and landed her fists straight between the eyes. It fell.

That didn't stop Alex from shooting it in the face as soon as it stirred as she sprinted headlong into the room. Kara gave her a look.

"It moved!" Barbara shrugged, it was still alive, and now well and truly unconscious.

* * *

J'onn was not a happy man.

"What the hell happened to not engaging?! What was I thinking sending the Danvers sisters to investigate Max Lord?" His eyes glowing a dangerous shade of red.

"In Kara's defence, that thing did attack first." Winn spoke up in defence of his friend. Cringing as J'onn rounded on him.

"How exactly would you know that?" There was a pause.

"I sorta hacked the security cameras from the street, I could just about see into the building, which was irrelevant as it came from the outside." He rambled, James smirked at his boyfriend's antics.

"So, it didn't originate from Lord Tech?" Barbara spoke up.

"I wouldn't jump to that conclusion yet," Kara, of course it would be Kara, spoke up, "it could be a distraction. Something to stop us from investigating too deeply." Whilst J'onn realised that Kara was hardly the most objective of witnesses, she had a point.

"Miss Gordon, Agent Schott, have you got anything from the telemetry from the machine you discovered?" He didn't know what the thing was, they'd come to him with the schematics, hoping he might have recognised it, or at least what it did. He didn't. Well, that wasn't strictly true, he recognised some of the components as coming from a Gordonian Battle Cruiser, but he wasn't sure why the machine needed a cooling spire that powerful.

"Well, we know that it needed more power than is produced by the whole of the National City grid, which obviously is what caused the surge. However, we also know that they must have some other power source, probably unstable because why attach to the grid at all?" Winn asked, tapping a couple of keys on his keyboard a hologram of the spire sprung suddenly from the projectors around the DEO. James did a double take, he had no idea that they had _holograms_ , as he was sure Winn had pointed out, this was so Star Wars it was cool! Barbara tapped a part of the hologram, close to the main terminal, it pulsed red.

"This is the interesting point of the machine, as J'onn mentioned the vast majority of it is a cooling spire, but this is something else entirely. It's generating something in the realm of 22,000 kelvin, hence the massive cooling system, but I don't think that it's the primary purpose, sure heat like that can be useful in some chemical reactions. The creation of Red Kryptonite for example," Kara stiffened, "but it can't be just for that, I could knock up a converter with what we have in the DEO, there's no need for something on this scale. In short, I," she indicated Winn, "we, have no idea what's going on here." There was an uncomfortable silence. Barbara and Winn were two of the best scientific minds that any of them had come across and they were completely stumped. Working together. Kara was getting restless, Barbara's training meant she could see it before the rest of them, but she wasn't exactly subtle for long.

"Miss Danvers, is there somewhere you need to be?" J'onn asked, the corner of his mouth turned up in amusement.

"Uh, no. I mean, uh, yes, kinda... I have a date." She stammered, Alex laughed lightly.

"Go, we've got this." J'onn glared at Alex.

"Yes, we have this, but just remember you take your orders from me not your sister." J'onn laughed, still mock glaring at Alex.

"Try telling that to her!" Kara laughed, with that, she leapt into the sky. Winn laughed heartily and everyone gave him a look.

"You've met Alex, right?" J'onn raised an eyebrow and turned back towards the hologram. There was a bleep and Barbara put her finger to her ear and held a hand to them.

"Batgirl, go ahead." There was a long pause. "You're kidding?... Right, ok. Thanks Tim. Yeah, I'll talk to him. Bye."

"Anything we need to know?" James asked, he knew how it was with the Bat's having met them whilst with Superman.

"Yes, James, you're going to need to suit up. We have something on the creature." James nodded and sprinted off, Winn looked at J'onn who nodded, then grabbed his laptop and the keys to his van and followed him.

"Batgirl! What do you know?" J'onn barked, he didn't appreciate her starting her own op inside his headquarters.

"It's a Cadmus creation, that creature we saw, I had Red Robin look into the biometrics we drew off it…"

"I looked myself, I couldn't make heads or tails of it." Alex butted in, Batgirl ignored her.

"He found that it was genetically modified from a cross between some of the Fort Rozz aliens and another species we can't identify. He also found out that there was another power surge down at the docks about two weeks ago, which is roughly how old we estimated the creature was."

There was a silence. J'onn clicked into gear.

"Alex, prep the assault team. Heavy weapons and non-lethals, we need to be able to destroy any more of those creatures, and to take the Cadmus operatives alive. Batgirl, you and Guardian get down to the docks and find somewhere to set up shop until the team arrive." He tapped his comm. "Supergirl, come in. We need you." There was a whoosh as a concerned Kara landed with an audible thump. "Supergirl. We need you in the air, scan the warehouses at the docks, look for a laboratory, or lead. I'm coming with you." He morphed into his natural form and the two took off.

Batgirl stepped into her room and donned her armour, setting it to auto tighten and safety check as she ran for the bike. James and Winn were waiting for her, the former on his bike. They sped off, with Winn unable to keep pace in the van, he pulled off and set up his station two blocks to the south.

"Batgirl, comm check, I've patched you into our network."

"Received loud and clear." Barbara tapped a panel on her Gauntlet. "You should be able to receive my visual feed now Winn."

Winn jumped as her feed asserted itself next to Guardian's. He was incredibly impressed by the Prophet OS she was using. It was clearly a next level HUD, far superior to the one he'd set up for Guardian. He'd have to compare notes when she got back.

"Batgirl, Guardian. That crane is abandoned and is in striking range of most of the warehouses. Good place to set up an observation post." The two acknowledged and swung their bikes right. Pulling up not far from the docks and grappling up to the platform on top of the cab. James pulled a set of small, high tech binoculars out of his belt, flipped them open and scanned the ground.

"Enhance." Batgirl's cowl complied and zoomed to a level that she could use to perfectly make out the faces of everyone on the ground.

"Agent Schott, run an analysis of Warehouse 14 from the DEO satellite. We've got a lead flooring, presumably covering further underground layers. Try the OMAC program." Winn confirmed and Barbara and James focussed their vision on the warehouse in question. Armed guards. Lots of them. Whilst this wasn't of itself out of the usual for a dockside warehouse, the tech they were packing was. Prophet detected four alien weapons, two concealed energy blades and a comm system that rivalled the DEO's own. She passed on the information to Winn who informed her that it was equally unhackable as the set they were running. It was hardly two minutes later when Alex's strike team reported that they were in position. A quick call to Maggie Sawyer at the NCPD and a perimeter was subtly formed by their SWAT teams. If Cadmus noticed anything it didn't show.

"Results are back, there are 52 levels to that thing, highest heat concentration is on the 37th, I'm assuming that there's another one of those machines. I'd suggest that Supergirl stayed outside and covered everyone's escape, I'm almost certain there's Kryptonite in there." J'onn stifled Kara's inevitable complaints by agreeing and ordering her to stay outside. He gave the signal and the attack started. James grapneled to the floor vertically and took off at a run towards the warehouse. Barbara leapt off the crane and opened up her cape into a glider, holding her hands to the edges. Her feet collided with a Cadmus soldier, one who she had targeted due to the sword in his jacket. There was a hail of energy weapon fire around her as Alex's assault team launched into action. Now largely forgotten as Cadmus returned fire Batgirl threw a Batarang and disarmed a man with a rather dangerous looking weapon which was pointed towards Guardian, who in turn knocked a man off his feet who was aiming at the back of Batgirl's head. Then Supergirl and Martian Manhunter dropped out of the sky. There were two huge crashes as they landed, creating craters in the concrete. They moved in perfect unison, standing up and launching themselves at the enemy. Reinforcements were arriving now, but a carefully timed volley of fire blocked their entrance into the battle until they threw a grenade through the entrance.

* * *

The explosion was massive.

Winn could feel it from where he was sat in the command centre. He no longer had the visual feed from any of the agents, Batgirl, Supergirl or even James.

James.

He could be hurt. Winn stood up, hands clutching his head as he tried the comm.

"This is Agent Winn Schott, does anybody read me." Silence. "Anyone?!" Still nothing. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, grabbing a rifle of a similar type as that which he had used to save Kara with the help of the heroes of Earth One. He sprinted towards the warehouse, hoping that there would at least be someone left to save.

* * *

Guardian had covered himself and the nearest agent with his shield as soon as he saw the grenade roll out of the door. There were blue pulsing lights, similar to the ones on the spire. As soon as it detonated James realised that his HUD was down. All he could see was what his eyes showed him. What they showed him was chaos. There were at least five dead, a further three either critically injured or dead as well. Batgirl had a broken arm by the looks of it and the blast had sent Supergirl to the ground which was no mean feat. The problem was that they were disoriented now, and the Cadmus reinforcements had the initiative. There was an exchange of fire, the remaining DEO agents being forced into cover. The heavy weapons fire had also forced Martian Manhunter and Supergirl first to ground, then to cover themselves. Supergirl popped up and used her heat vision to scatter Cadmus. Now both sides were pinned. Guardian could do nothing but use his projectiles to try to disarm as many enemies as he could, but every time he tried to move forward, covering himself with his shield to retake the initiative, the sheer volume of fire would force him to retreat. He called Winn, hoping for a new angle, or some tech that he'd overlooked to help him. There was only static.

"J'onn! Comms are down. Can you link us up?" He shouted to the Martian who was dragging one of their dead comrades back to the DEO's line. Once he had covered himself behind a shipping container he closed his eyes. When they opened again they glowed red.

" _Can you all hear me?"_ He asked using the Mind Link.

" _Loud and clear director. What's our plan?"_ Alex asked, popping up and firing her weapon dropping two of the Cadmus lackeys before they could draw a bead on her.

" _J'onn, if we give you cover fire could you phase behind them?"_ Kara asked, J'onn took a breath and nodded. Supergirl leapt into the air and used her superspeed to rush the enemies, dodging heavy weapons blasts, whilst Cadmus was distracted by Kara, who was now being slowly forced back step by step Guardian launched himself into battle. From the side, Winn appeared, firing his stun rifle (J'onn and Lena still insisted there was no way they were going to call these things phasers) at full auto, dropping two or three of Cadmus' soldiers before being forced to duck into cover. By this stage, the whole of the DEO's force was advancing and Cadmus was falling back to their second line of defence.

Their second line of defence, and the Martian Manhunter.

J'onn targeted the heavy weaponry, dropping the operators hard. Cadmus was defeated, they knew it. The last five were back behind the doorway, firing at full auto at anyone who got close.

"Supergirl, can you stop them please?" Asked Batgirl, still clutching the broken arm, now in a sling. Kara smiled and walked slowly, arrogantly, through the door. She knocked the remaining soldiers to the floor unconscious and beckoned the others to come through after her. There were sirens nearby, apparently, Maggie had ordered the SWAT teams into action after Alex hadn't replied for a time after the grenade.

Winn walked through the door after Alex and could see the others starting down the warehouse. He turned to look.

"Holy shit."

 **A/N: Hello my lovely readers. Sorry this took such a long time to put up. Coursework/Revision is slowing my life down and ruining it. Ugh. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this chapter, the story is beginning to take shape in my head now. I must admit, I hugely enjoyed writing the pitched battle between the DEO and Cadmus. What did Winn and the others see? Find out next chapter :)**

 **As always, constructive criticism, thoughts and the rest are greatly appreciated.**


	3. Chapter III: Raid

Chapter III: Raid

"Holy shit."

"I know, that is something else." One of the agents acknowledged him, to Winn's embarrassment he didn't have the first clue as to the man's name.

The sight in front of the DEO's assembled forces was impressive, huge shelves, as far as the eyes could see, containing what could only be described as embryos. None were fully formed as yet, even with his basic understanding of biological sciences Winn could tell. He also counted at least four separate species of creature inside the pods, suspended by a lightly glowing blue liquid. It was the only light in the entire warehouse and it gave the site an earie underwater atmosphere. J'onn once again snapped to it.

"Batgirl, Winn, I need you two to find a computer and download the data on this place. Then head back to the DEO and start analysing it." Barbara narrowed her eyes.

"I can still fight J'onn, you don't need to worry about me." There was an edge to her voice, not quite anger, perhaps just a little frustration.

"I am fully aware of that, which is precisely why I'm sending you back to base. If we're defeated by any more Cadmus forces on the levels below us, it's prudent not to put all our eggs in one basket." Batgirl hesitated and nodded, beckoning to Winn to follow her down the first corridor on the left. "Supergirl, I need you to make a visible presence in the city. Cadmus will expect us to use you in any raid, a sighting could lull them into a false sense of security. They have no idea that we know about their hidden labs." Kara's eyes widened in shock and concern.

"No, I'm coming with you. There's a reason Cadmus expects me to be with you J'onn, I'm the most powerful asset the DEO has, I won't let my sister and my friends get hurt because I'm not there!" She snapped, irked.

"Supergirl, that wasn't a request. Besides, my power levels are at essentially the same as yours, nobody's going to get hurt." He smiled. "Besides, don't you have a date?" Alex winced, this wasn't the time for a joke.

"Do you honestly think that any one person is more important than my job and the safety of my family?!" She shouted, everyone cringed and looked around, hoping she hadn't alerted anybody else in the building.

"My apologies, that was tasteless of me. At least I know now that if you and Mon-El had got together you would still have cared about your job both as Supergirl and as a reporter." J'onn apologised graciously. Alex raised an eyebrow.

"Where did that last bit come from?" She asked, J'onn just shrugged.

"Never the less Kara, we need you out there, not in here." J'onn finished. Kara looked to Alex for help, when there was none forthcoming she walked out of the doors. She knew it was arrogant to assume that she made all the difference on missions such as this one, but she was _Supergirl_ for crying out loud. Her help _did_ make the difference for hundreds of people the city over.

"Supergirl!" Maggie Sawyer, with a SWAT team. "Where's Agent Danvers and the rest of her team? We came as soon as we heard the explosion go off."

It was sweet, Kara thought, the extent to which Alex and Maggie cared for one another. She forced down her smile, the circumstances hardly called for it, and answered the question. Telling the detective that the DEO's team were investigating a Cadmus facility and that the NCPD should keep up the perimeter around the warehouse. Whilst Maggie initially wanted to follow them in her Captain convinced her against it over the radio (much to Kara's relief, she was sure that Alex would kill her otherwise). Kara slipped away from them and called Lena on her mobile.

"Hey Lee…"

"- Kara Zor-El! Next time you go superheroing tell me! I've been worried sick that you were hurt somewhere and I'd have no idea where to find you!" Lena shouted down the phone, Kara winced. A text would probably have been a good idea.

"I'm sorry, we tracked down a Cadmus site and J'onn needed my help. I've been sent back to National because Winn thinks that they're storing Kryptonite there. So, could you give me half an hour and then get back to our date?" There was a breath of relief.

"I knew I liked Winn. As annoyed at him as you must be, he's got your safety in mind right now. Same with J'onn. Are you hurt?"

"No, a little battered and bruised, but I'm fine."

"Ok then, meet me at my office in three quarters of an hour. That'll give you a chance to stop some crime to throw Cadmus off and then walk over to L-Corp." Kara thanked her and hung up. Well, that went better than could be expected, especially since Lena was worried about her rather than angry that she got essentially stood up.

* * *

An hour and two bank robberies, an attempted mugging and an Ikea table (damn those things are difficult, even if you've got superpowers) later Kara Danvers walked into the lobby of L-Corp. Jess smiled warmly at her.

"Come right up Miss Danvers."

"How many times do I have to ask you to call me Kara, Jess? Miss Danvers is my sister." Kara smiles and Jess laughs. It's a lovely and genuine sound.

"At least once more it would seem." Chuckled Lena from the door of her office. "Jess, you can take the rest of the night off. Thank you." Jess thanked her in return and left after gathering her things. "I thought we might want to get a Chinese here tonight and watch a terrible film?" Lena asked, her voice sounded a little unsure, as if she was nervous as to Kara's reaction. Kara beamed.

"That sounds perfect. So long as we can pick up some potstickers from the little place around the corner from me." Lena laughs, she knew her girlfriend well. She held up a brown paper bag, the scent of Chinese wafting towards them in a vaporous cloud.

"You're the best girlfriend ever!" Kara exclaimed, wrapping Lena in a hug.

"Uh, Kara darling, super strength…"

"Oh! Oh god, I'm sorry Lee…"

"- It's fine Kara, you didn't hurt me." Lena cut her off before she spent the rest of the night apologising. Kara opened her mouth to argue but closed it again after Lena sent her a look. They chatted amiably as they ate the food, but Lena could tell that Kara was worried about her sister. It was getting dark and they hadn't heard from anybody in hours, which was, she supposed, both good and bad news at once.

"Kara, I'm sure she's fine. Winn or J'onn would have called you if she was hurt, right?"

"The grenade that killed Davidson carried an EMP, they'd have no way of contacting me. I knew I should have stayed with them." She was restless now, perhaps trying to reassure her wasn't the best option.

"Call Winn, you said him and Batgirl were sent back to the DEO, right? He'll know if they're ok." This was a risk on Lena's part. If Winn didn't know what was going on Kara would come screaming back to Warehouse 14 without even waiting for backup. Too late now.

"Winn! Do we know if…"

"- Kara, J'onn's been checking in with me via the Mind Link every half hour. The connection is faint but everyone seems to be fine. Please get back to your date. Oh, and say hi to Lena for me." He hung up. Kara's face fell with relief and she looked sheepishly at Lena.

"Sorry Lee, they're fine, J'onn has been keeping in touch with Winn. Oh! He also said to say hi." Lena laughed.

"Tell him hi back next time you see him as well." Kara smiled. The date began in earnest now and conversation moved from small talk to Kara explaining a little more about Kryptonian culture. Later it took a grimmer turn as Lena spoke a little about her upbringing and her front row seat to see his dissent into madness.

There was a ping about three hours into the date. Kara's earpiece, she still hadn't taken it out despite being able to hear it three miles off.

"Kara! J'onn's back, there's a problem." A stressed Winn Schott. Kara's eyes widened.

"Alex?! Is she ok?!"

"Oh, uh, yeah, she's fine. Probably should have led with that… anyway. It's Cadmus, in short we're in trouble." Kara looked to Lena, whose eyes were dark with fury and determination.

"We're on our way now."

Winn opened his mouth to reply when he heard her touch down. He looked at the call timer, it had taken her two seconds to carry Lena to the DEO. That had to be a new record. He saved the data for later.

"What's wrong, what have they done?!" Kara shouts, sprinting into the control centre. Lena only steps behind, someone stepped up to stop her but Winn gave them a wave of the hand. He liked having a position of respect. Made a change. It was Batgirl that replied.

"Those creatures we saw? They're only the half of it. Cadmus has been extending its influence, they have developed creatures whose sole purpose is to generate phenomenal amounts of electricity, hence the fact that Lord's machine didn't short out half the State. They have also developed a formula which grants the user incredible strength and heightened intelligence for a period of days, they took it from a variant of Venom and the Blockbuster Serum, mixed with some of the chemicals you cited as having created the Flash on Earth One and Man-Bat's serum. In short, they've created super soldiers that rival your level. Not only that but that creature you fought, it's the basic model. We destroyed the facility that we found, but we doubt that's it. We thought Cadmus were licking their wounds. They weren't." There was a stunned silence from Kara. Lena's eyes widened and she nodded.

"Did your data lead to the locations of any Cadmus operatives, or the locations of any other bases. What about the Gotham angle?" She asked, her mind working quickly. She had to convince J'onn to release the data to her. Batgirl nodded appreciatively, it might be worth taking the Luthor and Winn under her wing and training them in the same way she and Tim had been taught. They certainly had the aptitude for the technical and detective skills.

"All we know is that they have operatives and sleeper agents at all levels of government and secret service. Some don't even know they're Cadmus. They created a being who has powers similar to mine, perhaps in some ways superior." J'onn replied. He linked up Kara, Alex, James, Mon-El and Lena telepathically. He trusted them totally, the rest of the DEO was suspect.

" _We also know that they have a sleeper agent at the highest level of DEO clearance. I have cleared you all telepathically, but that is only possible because I know each of your minds well enough to do so."_ At this Lena frowned, they had only really known each other well for the two months since they were rescued. J'onn looked at the floor. So it was like that then, apparently J'onn had been monitoring her mind a little.

" _At my request, I wanted to be able to make sure you were ok."_ Kara told her telepathically, Lena was still angry, at both of them now, but she was no longer furious. At least it was only a betrayal of privacy not trust…

" _I didn't read your mind miss Luthor. I simply monitored your emotional state, think of it as reading your expression."_ Lena hummed audibly before deciding that it was an acceptable answer. She'd have to talk to Kara later.

" _J'onn, when you say the highest level of the DEO who would have access to that sort of data?"_ Mon-El asked, unusual for him to have a good question Lena thought. He scowled at her, oh yeah, telepathic communication. She looked around guiltily and noticed that everyone sans J'onn was struggling not to laugh.

" _Mon-El's point stands. It's possible that they might not be a member of the DEO, it could be an army general, someone in the White House, or it could be an agent. We are also unable to rule out that Batgirl has been compromised."_ That was quite a list of suspects. They _were_ in trouble Lena realised.

" _So say they don't know they're Cadmus, how does that work? Are they a replacement, is their mind being controlled, are they a traitor who's gone through a procedure to make them forget it, is it a chemical? The more we know about how they're feeding information the closer we are to catching them."_ Kara asked, J'onn paused for a second before answering.

" _We honestly don't know. What we_ do _know is that even if they don't know they're doing it they are passing information they are doing regularly. We can just about rule out anyone on the raid, because each of us had an opportunity to alert Cadmus, which their programming would have forced them to do so. I scanned the mind of one of the soldiers. No one realised we were coming."_ That was a start, so that meant that it was unlikely that Batgirl or the Assault Team was involved. James let out a sigh of relief. He knew for a fact that each of them had combat skills that would make it very difficult to bring them in if they were the Sleeper.

" _J'onn. I hate to say this, but have you considered the fact that someone in the DEO is deliberately passing information to Cadmus? A mole will be easier to catch than a sleeper agent."_ Lena thought softly, Alex stiffened, Kara's eyes widened, James scanned the room and Mon-El rubbed his Cadmus scar.

" _Everyone in this building went through strenuous checks Lena. It is highly unlikely that any of them are working with Cadmus."_ Alex told her, but she didn't sound certain.

* * *

J'onn knew that they were in a bad position. Cadmus was not only more powerful than the DEO if it ever came to a battle in the field, but they now had a secret informant to deal with. He also knew he couldn't call in any more favours with the League, if Cadmus managed to get inside the Justice League all hell would break loose. He had a hard time believing that anybody with access to this information would be willingly pass it over to Cadmus, in fact he was almost certain of it. At the moment, as loath as he was to admit it, his main suspect was Susan Vasquez, someone who before today he had trusted implicitly. That was in part why he was so suspicious of her. J'onn had always kept a tight leash over the DEO, watching anyone who made him question their loyalty even remotely. However, Sue avoided that to an extent precisely because she was the person, save Alex, he trusted the most within the organisation. She would have an opportunity to pass on information without anyone noticing. He hoped to god he was wrong, and that they could come up with a way of confirming or denying his suspicions.

* * *

James realised that him and Winn were drawing some dirty looks form the other patrons of the restaurant but he didn't care. Winn clearly needed to spend some time just the two of them. There was a comfortable silence whilst they ate until Winn put down his knife and fork.

"I thought you were dead. For two minutes I was convinced that you were dead after I couldn't raise you or anyone else on the Comm. What was worse is that it would have been my fault." His eyes were filling with tears. James' heart swelled with emotions he couldn't put his fingers on. There was sadness there, definitely pity and shock. Something else too. Pride? That would probably make him a terrible person if he was proud that his 'death' had effected his boyfriend that much. There was certainly affection there as well, and worry, and everything else that comes when your significant other is upset.

"How would that be your fault Winn?"

"I made the suit, it could have protected you, besides, J'onn wouldn't have let you join the mission if he didn't have faith in your tech." James had to resist the temptation to roll his eyes, they'd had this conversation before. More than once.

"The suit _did_ protect me Winn, it saved my life, and one of the DEO's agents. Besides, if J'onn hadn't let me do what I did I would have snuck in anyway. I was always going to be Guardian with or without you. I'm just glad that it's with you." Winn released a deep breath.

"I thought you were dead James, that was quite possibly the worst two minutes of my life."

* * *

 _The figure walked towards the console set up behind the alien bar. They moved their hand onto three bricks which revealed the screen. A slot opened up below it and they plugged in the hard drive that contained the information their commanders needed._

" _Good work, now, get back before they begins to suspect you." Lillian Luthor's voice came through the speaker, she deactivated the figures programming. "De-activation code: Red Sun."_

 **A/N: A quicker update as promised. Kudos to those of you who picked up the comic book Easter Eggs in this chapter and the last, I'm not sure I'm going to do anything with them yet. Maybe in a different story. As always, thank you for reading and please leave any constructive criticism or thoughts.**


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